Canadian Research in Brief

Prevalence and predictors of dating violence among adolescent female victims of child sexual abuse

(2006), Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Volume 21, Issue 8, pp. 1000-1017.
Authors

Cyr, Mireille
McDuff, Pierre
Wright, John

The purpose of this study was to (a) describe the amount of psychological and physical dating violence experienced by a sample of adolescents who were sexually abused as children and the reciprocity of the violence; and (b) to investigate the specific contribution of certain child sexual abuse characteristics as risk markers for interpartner abuse. Participants were female (n=126) adolescent victims of child sexual abuse who had been involved in an intimate relationship within a year of the study. Questionnaire data were collected to assess psychological violence in dating relationships. Results indicated that 84.1% reported perpetuating psychological violence and 81.7% reported receiving it, with 90% of teenagers who received psychological violence also perpetuating it. More than 45.2% reported being the victim of physical violence, with 20.6% reporting being victims of at least one form of severe violence. Duration and severity of the childhood sexual abuse and the presence were associated with increased risk of dating violence in adolescence.